Colonel CRAIGasked what provision is made for continued hospital care in the case of Irish soldiers of the rank and file, while still in the Army, who have been invalided through transient and uncertifiable loss of balance other than committal to war hospitals?
§ Mr. FORSTERThe same provision is made for Irish as for all other soldiers.
Colonel CRAIGasked the Secretary to the Local Government Board, as representing the Statutory Committee for Disablement, what provision has been made for the assistance, encouragement, 613W and reinstatement in industrial life of Irish soldiers who have been discharged from the Army while not yet fully recovered from the effects of prolonged nerve strain, with a view to preventing the risk of their eventually drifting into asylums?
§ Mr. HAYES FISHEROn the general subject of the treatment of nerve-shaken soldiers I would refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave on Tuesday last to a question put to me by the hon. and gallant Member for the Melton Division. There has, unfortunately, been some delay in forming local committees in Ireland; but I may state that in Dublin a strong voluntary committee has been acting, and that in Belfast the local war pensions committee has been working vigorously for some time. In some of the Irish counties, too, special disablement sub-committees have been formed, and in others Grants are being continued through the old voluntary organisations until new committees are established. I may add that the command depot for the Irish regiments at Tipperary has been dealing successfully with cases of nerve-strain by means of treatment in the training classes started with the help of the voluntary committee and the technical school in the town.